The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-05-04
Dangers Of Alcohol

In recent lecture before his class, DR..
William Tod Helmuth, of New York,
said: Now shall I tell you what, in my
opinion, has blighted more brilliant minds
in the profession than anything else2
What has wrecked the high hopes and
noble aspirations of hundreds of bright
men, such as you ares 1t is aleoRoV 1need
not enter here upon the physiological ques-
ton as to action of alcohol as food or in
disease. In my opinion, especially in
surgical practice, it is necessary; what
I refer to now is the use of alcohol as a
beverage, as stimulant taken by healthy
young men to excite their nervous
systems. Let me illustrate this to the
point. Every man and woman in this
assemblage I am sure knows of some
friend, some relative, some one perhaps
near and dear to them, whose lives have
been sacrificed to alcohol. Fix such an
one in your mind and ask yourselves the
question, what was the character and
temperament of that man2 Was he a
fool, o Ounce, a man whose mind worked
slowly, whose perceptions were obtuse,
whose intellect was plodding, whose
affections were cold? Oh, no! 1t was
the bright boy, the loving lad, the youth
at the head ofhis class, the boy who loved
his mother, whose capacities of mind
were large, whose heart was big, whose
aspirations were high, the idol of his
household, the admiration of his friends
who allowed this monster to take out of
him all that was good and honest and true
and noble and brave in life's battle; that
smothered his morality, killed his mind,
diseased his body and sent him, perhaps
disgraced, to premature grave, or, what
is ten thousand times more deplorable,
made him an outcast and a wanderer on
the face of the earth.
There is a predisposition, and perhaps
an hereditary tendency to alcoholism, that
renders alcohol dangerous to tempera-
ments such as have described, and when
we remember that nearly eight-tenths of
all the crimes that are committed in this
country can be attributed either directly
or indirectly to strong drink, and when
YOU are made aware of the seductive ma
ture of the habit, you will see that to
some alcohol is the rankest of all poisons,
the very bane of existence, the smotherer
of all manly sentiment, the desolator of
home, the ruiner of reputation, the father
of poverty and shame, a disease-producer
and soul-destroyer. And you will agree
with me when say to you that such abb
stinence is far easier than temperance
the former being possible, the latter alto
gether impossible. If you desire any
proof of such assertions, look around this
great city to-day and you will find con-
elusive evidence of every word speak.
Liquor Drinking in France.
The French Academy of Medicine has
lately rounded an alarm concerning the
prevalence of alcoholism as o public
danger in that country. The Govern
ment is urged to take strong measures TO
prohibit artiacially alcoholized wines, to
reduce the number of taverns and wine
shops, and to strictly enforce the laws
for the repression of drunkenness.
An official voice of this kind from q
scientific body of so influential a
character is il itself striking testimony
that, though France is wine country,
| the "wine cure" for drunkenness, which
America is from time to time urged to
adopt, is signal and disastrous failure.
The free use of wine in France has but
prepared the way for a largely increased
consumption of the stronger liquors.
National Adcocate.
A Cure for the Drink Appetite.
An exchange prints the following: "An
| oll lootor ~ Dh;1,5oI-b;o cove that onv